Context perspectives in a Taiwan junior high school

•Explores the complexities of learning to teach with numerous stakeholders.•Investigates what Taiwanese identify as an “induction phase.”•A context review situates perspectives that precede a school context placement.•Narrative representations provide ways of understanding participants.•Social interactions and relationships within educational environments matter.

This article explores context perspectives of a student teacher, a cooperating teacher, and the teachers and teacher administrators within a Taiwanese junior high school during an “induction phase” experience. We offer a context review to situate the study in Taiwan during a period of educational reform and a literature review to situate the study internationally. Although studies discuss student and beginning teachers' professional development with cooperating teachers and mentors, few explore the complexities of learning to teach by collectively describing numerous stakeholders' perspectives within one context. Our article describes a learning-to-teach context where professional development is shared through stakeholders' perspectives.